Another Swine Bites the Dust {Laundry Room Refresh}

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Ladies. I am pleased to announce that swine has been eliminated from the walls of one more room in my house. Our laundry room has been pretty much neglected (in the design department, not in the amount of laundry that has been done here) since we bought this house. There was nothing horrible about the room at all, which is why it’s stayed the same for all these years! It worked. It was functional. It was used. It is just that it was, well, swine-ish.

We decided we were ready for a little refresh, and the things we wanted to tackle were the fluorescent light, the unfortunate and most embarrassing state of our laundry sink which you’ll see at the end of this post, and of course the offensive fleshy swine color painted on the walls. But all in all, this room doesn’t need much to make it better than it was. If I could double its size, I would. But it’s got a window and a closet so I can’t complain. This is just mostly a paint refresh, so easy peasy!

My husband sanded down the cabinets last week, bless his heart, and painted them a pretty fresh coat of white (Dove White, the Benjamin Moore formula mixed in Glidden paint). We decided that a simple white palette would work best for the backdrop of this room since it is so small. We may change the cabinet handles in the future, but for now they original ones will serve us just fine and save us a little cash.

Our new light has been delivered and is waiting to be installed! We chose the Wallaby Flush Mount from Barn Light Electric and went with a fun emerald green color — to add a splash of something colorful and unique! The photo above was photoshopped for us when we were deciding on colors so it isn’t an exact photo of the fixture — please keep that in mind. The color may be slightly off, but that’s the general idea of the look! We cannot wait to get it hung and see that pretty pop of green on the ceiling. I’m not a fan of fluorescent lighting at all. With a nice big window for natural light, our room will be plenty bright without the fluorescent. (If you missed it, I shared my inspiration for green industrial lights here).

I’m excited about the light because it will add a charming feature to our space and give the white laundry room a little more personality!

As a reminder for those of you who haven’t been scouring my archives for before photos of this space (heheh) here is what the laundry room has looked like (minus the dirty clothes) for all these years.

Inspiring, no?

Our laundry room is on the second level, in the same hall as our all of our bedrooms. I love the location of it. It makes keeping up with laundry pretty easy and contains it all to one level. After years of doing laundry in a basement, this was like a little slice of heaven. Swine heaven.

Now, for the reveal of our sink. Lovely, isn’t it? Inspiring? You know you want to pin this to your laundry room inspiration Pinterest board. I realize I didn’t really need to put the ‘before’ label on that picture…I mean, seriously. What if that was the after? Yikes.

This sink is clear evidence to the amounts of rooms and furniture we have painted since moving into this house. Good times. Yes, we could have done a much better job cleaning the paint while it was still wet…woops. Fail. But since these sinks are pretty basic and inexpensive, and we’re not interested in taking a lot of time to scrub off the paint (if it’s even possible), we will be putting in a fresh clean one next week to replace it. It won’t be fancy, but clean and functional is our goal here for the time being.

We plan on hanging our ironing board on the opposite side next to our little white glass cabinet where we keep cleaning supplies. This will be a fairly small makeover, but a little has already gone a long way in making this space more enjoyable to use!

What’s left of the swine now, you ask? We have a slew of swine closets, and a swine master bathroom. I can deal with the closets, but the master bathroom is next on the list for new paint! Raise your hand if you’re going to miss the swine! #notme

I’ll share more progress once we get the new sink and light installed!

UPDATE: See the latest updates in this post and my DIY No-Sew Rolled Fabric Shade here!

Wallaby Flush Mount Pendant Details:

Shade Size: 12″ Shade

Finishes: 307 – Emerald Green

Guard Finish: Same as shade

Glass Options: Clear Crackle Glass

Socket Type: Standard Medium Base E26 Socket

Disclosure: Our new light fixture was provided in partnership with a favorite premier sponsor at The Inspired Room, Barn Light Electric.

Actually, I apologize I linked to the wrong paint, it’s actually Benjamin Moore’s formula for Dove White like our upper kitchen cabinets, but we had it mixed in Glidden paint!Melissa recently posted..Farmhouse Country Kitchen {5 Take Away Tips}

Lookin’ good. The lighter color is so fresh and bright. :) My utility sink got pretty bad too with all the projects. Magic Erasers did an amazing job bringing it back to life. After projects now, I use my eraser to remove any paint or goop. lol Just a thought when you get your new sink. ;)Julie at Being Home recently posted..A Thank You Gift for a Wonderful Art Teacher

I’m totally into my magic eraser, too. I think that is a fabulous idea, thanks for the tip. I hadn’t thought of that for my sink. I will be inspired to be much more diligent about paint clean upgoing forward with my new sink! :-) THANKS!Melissa recently posted..Farmhouse Country Kitchen {5 Take Away Tips}

I think ‘swine’ must also come in lead based paint –as it was ALL OVER OUR OLD HOUSE WHEN WE BOUGHT IT. ‘Swine’ has been around a LONG time! Love the new color in your laundry room.Patricia recently posted..::What’s in a Name? ::

Oh I just love that green light! Will really pop once everything else is lightened up in there. Good choice! I so need a laundry room makeover but it is at the very bottom of my project list unfortunately. Can’t wait to see your finished room! :)

Love the fresh new color. I suggested Dove White to my Aunt who just did a kitchen makeover. It looks wonderful on her cabinets with her freshly painted aqua walls! I love the new light fixture! It will be a pop of beautiful color in your laundry room. About the sink…stainless steel cleans up beautifully…ask me how I know. Ha!

Hi Melissa – When you said your laundry room was upstairs I just had to write to remind everyone to TURN OFF THE WATER SUPPLY to the washer when not in use. I loved my upstairs laundry room until I returned from a vacation to discover that the hose into the washer had split and had been spraying water for over a week. My entire house had to be gutted – ceilings, walls, floors. It looked like a bomb had gone off inside. I had the knob that turns the water off replaced with a lever that was super easy to use and always shut the water off after doing laundry after that!

What a great laundry room. Getting rid of the swine was a major improvement. I have a few pigs in my home too that I am working on getting rid of. I hope to get rid of most of them in the next few weeks. I am still trying to decide on a nice soft gray to replace them with. I am looking at Ben Moore Classic gray. Have you ever used it?Sheila recently posted..THE KITCHEN CEILING…

I am currently painting our living room and kitchen combo White Dove. It is much warmer than it has appeared on my monitor. It looks totally different in my home than yours, probably because of lighting. Did you know that Home Depot can now mix some of the Benjamin Moore paint colors? Was able to purchase it there for a few dollars less. :-)

Always a fan of yours. Love the inspiration I get from seeing your beautiful home.

I’m so happy for you, Melissa – your laundry room looks delightful. And I love Barn Light Electrics. Sadly, for myself, I’m crying. If I could have your swine room with no permission to change the color, I would probably take it because you have a WINDOW. Of the three floorplans in my 55+ community, for whatever Dumbest Reason Ever, our builder Del Webb made a window in the laundry room an option, abd for whatever Second Dumbest Reason Ever, the original owners of my house (probably the only such house in the neighborhood) didn’t select that option. Don’t have the small fortune to blow out the wall and install one and a solar tube in the ceiling (as I have in the kitchen) would bring in light but would probably end up looking as if I had the fluorescent on all the time (in the kitchen I also have 2 windows over the corner sink and a sliding patio door). For now, I’m following Maria Killam’s suggestion for putting a lamp in the room and leaving it on all day. If I ever find the right wall mural of a window looking out, I’m putting it up. In the meantime, I’ll live vicariously through your achievement and continue to be inspired by your every single post while continuing to look for ideas on how to brighten my black hole of Calcutta (I’m hardly the only one in the world with this challenge). Appreciate all the info on the White Dove paint in various uses – will come in handy when I get to my kitchen cabinets later.

We have a ‘walk-thru’ laundry room as it is entry from garage into home (picture 5 feet wide by 8 feet long with a swing door at each end). A window is not an option, nor is a solatube. HOWEVER, I purchased 2 undercab style lights from the hardware store, screwed them into the underside of the cabinets myself, plugged them in, and now it is bright and cheerful in there. You might want to check out some lighting from IKEA, or puck lights, or light tubing. Oh, and a cheerful paint color makes all the difference (i.e. pale yellow sunshine in semigloss for light reflection). That mural is genius!:)

Sandy, have you thought about adding undercabinet lighting? It makes such a difference and doesn’t cost a lot. IKEA, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Ace, all carry a variety of options. Painting the room a cheerful sunshine yellow can help too, esp. in a light-reflecting semigloss paint. Mural? Genius!

I’m raising my hand. Yup! Not because I like swine. Because I don’t. Yuck! It’s because I love the swine makeovers. ;) Makeovers are always fun to see. And I also love your commentary on swine. You make me chuckle and smile….and that’s a really good thing.

My husband walked by me while I was typing this and I looked up and he was grinning from ear-to-ear. I said, “What’s so funny?” He replied, “You!” “You must be ‘talking’ with someone online and are amused. I love your expression.”

I have laundry room longing, and I would adore a (removable, if necessary) counter over the top of my front loader and dryer. But I have the exact same sort of “box” for water supply that you do, and it is right in the middle of where the counter top would be, which would be Ugly. I would adore it if someone would magically solve that little problem.

Can’t wait to see the new sink! I’d love a sink in my laundry room! And a desk. And, craft space. I love having appliances humming around me, and it would be really fun to have creative and laundry and sewing space all together.

Oh I would love the solution for that weird water supply box, I’ve been thinking about it! Also I would love a laundry room with craft space, wouldn’t that be awesome? Dreaming.Melissa recently posted..Functional & Beautiful: Sunbrella Fabric Indoors!

Wow Melissa, your laundry room space is nice! My laundry room is about the same size as yours except you have more cabinet space and a sink…I am jealous right about now…LOL! I recently redecorated my laundry room and I know the feeling that you are feeling! Can’t wait to see how the new light fixture along with the new sink are going to look inside of your new space. Great job!Tamela recently posted..Zero Dollar Decorating Challenge

Melissa, I found a heavy duty SS sink @ a second hand store for a mere $20 (if I told you the brand, well, you wouldn’t like me – a pure steal!) and had that installed in our laundry room, along with the old kitchen, single handled, faucet. Best move ever! SS is so much easier to keep, and get, clean. A single-handled faucet makes turning it on/off super easy with an elbow (i.e. hands full of paint, caulk, sap, cement – you name it – and I just h.a.t.e. being sticky!) Something else I added below the above sink cabinet – a clothing rod to hang drip-dries on (hung on plastic hangers, they can drip in the sink). A small mat in front keeps feet cushioned. Oh, don’t forget some lovely family photos – reminders of those you love and why you are doing the dreaded laundry chore in the first place.:) Have you thought about adding a ‘counter’ across the dryer/washer? This makes a wonderful workspace (use for giftwrapping awa folding) and a vase with foliage or flowers is so cheering!

Love the laundry room new color, also with your new light. The emerald green light fixtures are so beautiful! I’m thinking of installing a new light fixtures for my room too, this is really inspiring. Thanks~

He just used a hand sander and left the doors in place. We are clearly not DIY professionals haha! The finish looks fine for our laundry room, but for a kitchen we’d probably have taken the doors off and sanded them outside. He used a primer from Glidden called Gripper. It seemed to work pretty well on our cabinets! :-)Melissa recently posted..Functional & Beautiful: Sunbrella Fabric Indoors!